


Memento Mori

by Eponin



Category: Firefly
Genre: Gen, Post-Serenity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-23
Updated: 2010-01-23
Packaged: 2017-10-06 15:09:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/54992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eponin/pseuds/Eponin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ghosts. Yeah, he saw ghosts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Memento Mori

He watched her play, nimble fingers twisting around the necks of plastic beasts, wrapping around their bellies, while she sat in _his_ chair, until finally he reached out, snatched them away.

"_Give_ me those." Jayne cradled Wash's dinosaurs. "Shouldn't play with things that ain't yours."

"Jayne!" Kaylee reached over his shoulders, pulling them free. "That wasn't very nice." She passed the creatures back to River.

River peered up at him from between strands of dark hair and smiled, knowing. "He's still here, can't leave. We won't let him." She petted the dinosaur.

"Besides," Kaylee said, gesturing at the pilot's console. "They belong here."

Jayne snorted, stood. "You're both gorram crazy," he growled, stomping out of the cockpit. He brushed past Mal on his way out; stopped to rest against the corridor wall just out of sight, rubbing a too-big hand over tired eyes.

"What's his problem?" He heard the creak as Mal settled into his vacated chair, the clicking as he checked over Serenity's instruments.

"Oh, nothing, Cap'n." said Kaylee. "Just Jayne bein' Jayne."

"He sees their ghosts."

Peering over his shoulder he watched River hold the dinosaurs up to Mal in supplication.

Ghosts. Yeah, he saw ghosts. Hauntings that caught him off guard, quick flashes of memory, when he'd come around the corner and see River's dark head instead of Wash's bright one, hear River's airy voice twisting words that made no sense at all instead of Wash's raucous laughter, his cheerful optimism.

Times like these he wished he'd been smarter, found some way to get the money on Ariel and run, before he'd actually come to care for _Serenity_, for the inhabitants of _Serenity's_ tiny self-contained world.


End file.
